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German police have arrested a man for allegedly causing an intentional gas explosion meant to kill his wife and father.

Investigators suspect that the 54-year-old man of manipulating the natural gas connection in his Zeitz home late on Sunday night. The home in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt was completely destroyed, and police estimate €250,000 in damage.

The man's 46-year-old wife and 88-year-old father escaped the massive explosion without injury.

According to police, who arrested the man on Monday, the man's wife caught him fiddling with the gas connection in the cellar. The man fled the house and the woman called police when she smelled gas. The house exploded about an hour later, police said.